By far, the priciest of all the Dell 10¢
series, Fredric Brown published this short paperback original in 1951. It was
first reprinted by Dennis
McMillan, Volcano, Hawaii (1985), a
hardcover book in dust jacket, with an introduction by Lawrence Block (each copy
is signed by Block). The average price is around the same as the paperback:
about $150 to $300. It has also been reprinted as part of a short story
anthology, Carnival of Crime: The Best Mystery Stories of Fredric Brown,
Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, which ALSO routinely sells for more
than $100.

In other words, the
book is valuable, because it is RARE! It's a hardboiled mystery/thriller that
crams tough detectives, con men, beautiful molls, hapless victims and innocent
damsels into 64 pages, and it does it in true pulp fashion. And the surprise
ending (which obviously has to do with the odd title) makes it a really good
story. There are a lot of Fredric Brown fans out there ... but they can't get
their hands on a copy.

And so, collectors
are faced with a REAL problem. People buy the book to READ! Dell 10¢ books are extremely
fragile. As a result, copies in good condition are getting more and more
difficult to find. I read my copy, using painstaking care. But ... it's not
quite in the same condition as before.

HOWEVER ...

I have since
discovered that the novelette HAS been printed at least twice in magazines, once
before the Dell 10¢ book was printed, and once afterwards. If you're interested
in obtaining it to READ, you may find it much more cost effective trying to find
one of the pulps somewhere.

It was first printed
in 1950 (the year before the Dell book) in Mystery Book Magazine as part
of the Summer 1950 issue (it sports a Rudolph Belarski cover). It was also
published later, in the Spring 1955 issue of Triple Detective. Both of
these magazines are "Thrilling Publications," meaning they were part of
the corporation that also published Popular Library paperbacks. I find it
interesting that Brown sold the paperback rights to Dell and the magazine rights
to Popular.

I purchased both
magazines in fair-to-good condition for less than $20 apiece.